Annihilate Me 2: Vol. 1 (23 page)

He took a long swallow, and then
paused before taking another one, which told me exactly how much pressure he
was under.
 
When he put his glass
down on the coffee table in front of us, I slipped my hand beneath his shirt
and covered one of his
pecs
with my hand while I
pulled him close to me.

“So, let me propose this,” I said.

“What’s that?”

“Since we’re taking the Boeing, we
should take a few extra people along with us.”

He furrowed his brow at me.
 
“Who?”

“Daniella and Alexa are soon going
to flee to the Hamptons.
 
They only
just arrived in the city today, and this week was supposed to be spent with
their mother before they escaped for the summer.
 
As far as I see it, we might be in
Singapore for at least a week before we return home.
 
Barbara hasn’t seen those girls since
Christmas.
 
Why don’t we bring them
along so they can experience a different culture?”

“Do you even know what you’re
asking?
 
Daniella and Alexa could
personally destroy Singapore if they wanted to.
 
Especially Daniella.”

“That’s why we also bring Lisa with
us,” I said.
 
“Look, what’s the big
deal—we’re going to be there anyway.
 
We can set them up in the same hotel as us, and let them explore a city
they might otherwise have never seen.
 
It’s not as if they’re going to get in the way of our work.
 
I’ll talk with Lisa.
 
I know that woman as much as I know
myself.
 
She’ll oversee the girls,
and she’ll make sure that they’re kept in line.
 
Plus, at night, she’ll be able to spend
time with Tank.
 
If everyone is up
for it, why not bring along the girls and Lisa so they can enjoy the city while
we do our work?”

He thought about that for a moment
and then shrugged.
 
“Why not?
 
Lisa would enjoy it, and God knows those
two girls could benefit from seeing how others live.
 
Especially Daniella.”

“So, is that a go?”

“It’s a go.”

“We’ll need to bring along one
other person with us,” I said.

“Who’s that?”

“First, let me get you another
martini.”

“If you’re talking about
Epifania
, I’m out.”

I laughed at that as I stood up,
reached for his glass, and went into the kitchen to make him a fresh
drink.
 
“I think you know
better.
 
Eat some crackers and
cheese.
 
Have some grapes.
 
You don’t have enough in your stomach.”

“Who is this mysterious person?”

As I started to shake his drink, I felt
a mixture of excitement and dread.
 
Is now the time to spring my news on
him?
 
Given the circumstances, what
other choice do I have?
 
I have to
tell him now.
 
“Just
that—a mysterious person.”

“What does that mean?”

I returned to the living room,
handed him his drink, and met his inquisitive gaze with my own. “You might want
to take a long swallow, lovey,” I said.

“Why is that?”

“Just do it.”

He did.
 
And then, likely because of the look of
expectation on my face, he took another.

“What are you up to?” he asked.

I felt a thrill of joy and terror
as I leaned down toward his ear.
 
“I’m pregnant,” I said.
 
“We’re going to have a baby.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

His eyes widened.
 
“We’re going to have a what?” he asked.

“Let me just say it again, because
frankly, I can’t believe it myself.
 
I’m pregnant.
 
We’re going to
have a baby.
 
I am, as they used to
say back in the day, with child.”

He finished his martini in one gulp.
 
Then he turned to me, and when he did,
his face lit up in such a way that it was as if his entire rotten day had
lifted off of him.
 
He beamed at
me.
 
“We’re going to have a baby?”

“Let’s just call it a miracle,” I
said.
 
“I don’t know how it
happened—I’ve been on the pill religiously because we both agreed that
we’d wait for another two years so we could enjoy our lives alone together for
a while longer.
 
But something must
have gone wrong—or right, depending on how you look at it.
 
Obviously, things happen for a
reason.
 
The pill isn’t
foolproof.
 
The reason I didn’t go
back to work today is that Lisa made me take a pregnancy test and I called my
doctor immediately after it came back positive.
 
My doctor saw me, she did another test,
and she confirmed it.
 
By her
estimation, I’m about one month pregnant.
 
In another eight months, we’re going to be parents.”

“Is this why you’ve been so sick
this week?”

“It could be a mix of both stress
and the pregnancy.
 
Probably both,
but I have a feeling that it’s due more to the latter.
 
I handle stress well—you’ve seen
that.
 
I kind of get off on it.
 
As for a baby—obviously, I don’t
handle that well at all.”

Without hesitation, he gently swept
me into his arms, pulled me into his lap, and held me close to him.
 
For a long moment, we didn’t talk.
 
Instead, he just kissed me and held me
in such a protective way that the love that came through his embrace was as
real as it was palpable.
 

“I can’t believe it,” he said with
genuine excitement.
 
“A little
boy.
 
A little girl.
 
Have you told anyone else?”

“Only Lisa and my doctor know.
 
Lisa’s the one who suggested that I get
checked out after I threw up at lunch.”

“What happened at lunch?”

“I got a whiff of her salmon, and
that’s all it took to make me hurl.
 
After I lost it in the ladies room, she waited for me to collect myself and
then she cornered me and asked the question.
 
I told her I wasn’t sure.
 
She said I needed to be sure, so she
went to a drugstore, got me a pregnancy test so nobody from the press would see
me buying one myself, and then she came back here.
 
I did my duty on one of those sticks, and
then I did my duty on another stick.
 
And with that pretty much sewn up, I got my butt to the doctor.
 
We’re pregnant.
 
End of story.”

When Alex spoke to me again, his
eyes were bright with emotion.
 
“I
can’t tell you how happy I am,” he said.

And here was the relief and the
support that I needed.
 
“Alex, I
promise you that I never missed my pill.”

“So what?
 
Things happen for a reason.
 
We’re going to have a baby.
 
I’m going to be a father!”

“We’ll see how excited you are
about that when our child first pees in your face or throws up on you.”

He grinned at that, and I thought
I’d never seen his dimples go so deep.
 
He was genuinely over the moon.
 
He dipped me down again and smothered me
with kisses.
 
Then, when he allowed
me up for air, we looked at each other in a stunned kind of silence, and each
of us laughed.
 

“So much for waiting two years,” I
said.

“Who cares?
 
I’m ready if you are.
 
Are you OK with this?”

“Actually, I am.
 
I wasn’t expecting to be, but I am.
 
I have your child inside of me.
 
I’m carrying our baby.
 
I’m a hormonal mess—you’ll need to
deal with that, by the way, so my apologies going forward—but it’s a good
kind of mess.
 
I’m delirious.
 
It’s like this light shined down on us
just when we needed it most.
 
So
many times from so many girlfriends, I’ve always heard the same
thing—it’s a gift.
 
But until
now, as happy as I was for them, I didn’t understand just what that happiness
felt like.
 
Now, I get it.
 
It’s profound.
 
I’m about to be a mother.”

“And you’re looking at daddy.”
 
He took my hand in his own, and held it
to his heart.
 
“Can you feel
that?
 
That’s how excited I am.
 
I can’t tell you how happy you’ve made
me.
 
I can’t tell you what this
means to me.
 
I want to shout it out
to the world, I’m so happy.
 
I want
to tell everyone I know, I’m so happy.”

“Slow down, cowpoke.
 
The doctor said that we need to get
through the first trimester before we go public with anything.
 
Obviously, we can tell our closest
friends—since Lisa already knows, that means Blackwell and Tank should
know.
 
But there is a risk of
complications that we need to be mindful of.
 
My day-to-day duties at Wenn won’t
change—the doctor assured me of that.
 
Neither will my day-to-day life, which
will go on as usual, albeit with some continued morning sickness.
 
I have to take vitamins, make sure that
I get enough rest and exercise, and eat well—which I already do.
 
But otherwise, it’s life as usual.
 
Including sex!”

“I don’t know about that,
Jennifer.”

“Alex, I’m hornier than I’ve ever
been.
 
My body has been taken over
with hormones.
 
Your job is to help
alleviate them.”

“She said that sex was safe?”

“I’m pregnant, not broken.
 
Yes, it’s perfectly safe—right up
to the point that it becomes uncomfortable for me.
 
I asked her just to be sure.
 
She said that I likely was going to have
the best sex life of my life—which means that you are, too.
 
Though I probably will make you work
harder.
 
I’m sorry, love—but
I’m about to become one wanton, demanding wife.”

“As if I needed a reason to please
you.
 
But just hear me out, OK?
 
I have questions, too.
 
What about work?
 
I worry about work—and especially
about this trip, which will be grueling.
 
I don’t think you should come.
 
We can’t risk anything happening to the baby.”

“By sitting on your private Boeing?
 
Which happens to have two bedrooms and
a
 
suite?
 
Nothing is going to happen to this
baby.
 
If I’m tired, I’ll just lay
down, as I would if I were here or on the sofa in my office at work.
 
And as for dealing with Wei
Jei
, I live for that shit—and it will give my
hormones a target should they need one.”

“That’s what kind of freaks me
out.
 
You, uh, sort of have a bit of
a filter.
 
But what happens should
you lose it?”

“Who knows?
 
If he crosses us, we might just get the
memory we need.
 
But enough of
that.”
 
I reached down between his
legs and cupped his bulge in my hand.
 
“Did I happen to tell you that I’m horny, Alex?
 
Like really super horny?
 
Because I am.
 
The doctor says it’s perfectly
normal—so get ready, stud.
 
Just sitting here in your lap is enough to make me want to crawl out of
my skin.
 
So, how about if we go to
the bedroom, and take our minds off the day with an unexpected celebration?”

“You’re sure it’s safe?”

“Yes, it’s safe.
 
Just make love to me—please?
 
Pretty please.
 
I’m dying here.”

Within an instant, he was on his
feet and I was in his arms, and he was leading us toward our bedroom.
 
When we entered it, he lowered my feet
to the floor and pulled me toward him so we could kiss while he hastily removed
our clothing.
 
Off came my top.
 
Off came his shirt.
 
Off came my shoes.
 
Off came his pants.
 
But off came my skinny jeans?
 
The ones I’d needed to shovel my ass
into earlier?
 
No way.
 
Without assistance, it wasn’t happening.

“I can’t get out of my jeans,” I
said.

“Then let me help.”

I fell back on the bed and lolled
around on it while he started to tug them off me.
 
“Oh, why?” I said in an effort to keep
the moment light while he continued to pull.
 
“Why do I see this as a premonition of
things to come?
 
Before we know it,
my stomach will be so big that we’ll have to do sideways sex, with my leg
lifted high in the air, and you pumping into me.
 
That should be pretty.
 
That should be as romantic as hell.”

“It
will
be romantic,” he
said.
 
“Because it will be us.
 
Just us.”

“And junior, wondering what the
hell is going on.
 
‘What’s Mommy and
Daddy doing?
 
Why is Daddy trying to
stab Mommy like that?’”

“You’re too much,” he said.

“I just want to be enough,” I said
in a more serious tone.
 
“My whole
body is going to change, Alex.
 
At a
certain point, I’m not going to be attractive to you anymore.
 
You and Blackwell are going to want to
put me in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
 
I’m bound to be asked to be one of the balloons—if it’s even
possible to hoist my ass in the air.”

When he had finally removed my
jeans, he took off his boxer shorts and then crawled on top of me.
 
“Stop being silly,” he said.
 
“You’ve never been more beautiful than
you are to me right now.
 
That will
only continue to be true as our baby grows within you.
 
I can’t tell you how happy you’ve made me,
Jennifer.
 
To come home to this
after this day.
 
So, you know, why
don’t I just show you how happy I am?”

And he did.

Generally, our lovemaking ran the
gamut, from the rough to the experimental, such as the night he pressed me
against a massive display of windows overlooking Fifth Avenue and had his way
with me—where anyone could have seen us, which was part of the
thrill.
 

But when he started to make love to
me now, he was a different man.
 
He
was gentler than he’d ever been with me.
 
He kissed and caressed every inch of my body, he tended to my
hypersensitive breasts causing me to come twice, and when he finally entered
me, he did so with a long, slow stroke that made me catch my breath because,
even to this day, I’d yet to adapt to his size.
 

I wrapped my arms around his neck
and rode him like that until he lifted me onto his lap, and I rode him
there.
 

There was rarely a moment when his
lips weren’t close to my own, either kissing them, or saying things to me that
just made me fall even deeper in love with him.
 
When he pressed his cheek against my ear
and told me again that he loved me, the stubble on his face, which I’d never
get over, sent shivers throughout my body, but in ways that were different than
before.
 

My body seemed more sensitive and responsive
than ever.
 
Already, there was a
change in me that was taking place when it came to sex.
 
I wrapped my arms around Alex’s back and
pulled him closer to me, so that he was as deep inside of me as possible.
 
At that point, we literally were
one.
 
Not just as a wedded couple,
but as a wedded couple who would one day welcome a new child.
 
The fact that we were having a child
changed everything, from the way we held each other to the way he moved me
about the bed with such care.
 
It
was beyond sensual.